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The 'invisible crew' who have 35 seconds to prevent a Eurovision blunder

bbc.com

1–10 of 58 posts

Re: The 'invisible crew' who have 35 seconds to prevent a Eurovision blunder

#5

Honestly this sounds way more interesting than Eurovision itself.

I’ve been a fan for almost 18 years, ever since some euro friends were talking about the voting system on IRC. Love the intersection between culture and geopolitics.

Re: The 'invisible crew' who have 35 seconds to prevent a Eurovision blunder

#6
I know this is not the right place for this but english is not my first language.

How is "have" the correct verb here? Shouldn't it be "has"? Like, the crew is the subject, and it has 35 seconds.

I'm trying to understand what I'm missing here, because I'm sure BBC did not make a mistake

Re: The 'invisible crew' who have 35 seconds to prevent a Eurovision blunder

#7

I know this is not the right place for this but english is not my first language. How is "have" the correct verb here? Shouldn't it be "has"? Like, the crew is the subject, and it has 35 seconds. I'm trying to understand what I'm missing here, because I'm sure BBC did not make a mistake

This might help: https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/ask-writer/are-words-...

In short:

When you’re referring to the collective noun as a unit, treat it as singular:

The band lost its spot in the top ten this week. When you’re referring to the individuals within the group, treat it as plural:

The jury had to sign for their ID badges.

Re: The 'invisible crew' who have 35 seconds to prevent a Eurovision blunder

#8

I know this is not the right place for this but english is not my first language. How is "have" the correct verb here? Shouldn't it be "has"? Like, the crew is the subject, and it has 35 seconds. I'm trying to understand what I'm missing here, because I'm sure BBC did not make a mistake

Both "has" and "have" sound ok to me here as a native speaker.

Both of these can describe the same event:

- The cows have 10 seconds to enter the field

- The herd has 10 seconds to enter the field

In the case of "crew", the word can either mean

- The people who are part of the crew (like "the cows")

- The crew as a collective unit (like "the herd")

Which is why both sound ok

Re: The 'invisible crew' who have 35 seconds to prevent a Eurovision blunder

#9

I know this is not the right place for this but english is not my first language. How is "have" the correct verb here? Shouldn't it be "has"? Like, the crew is the subject, and it has 35 seconds. I'm trying to understand what I'm missing here, because I'm sure BBC did not make a mistake

it depends on what flavour of English you speak. British English for instance tends to use plural for collective nouns.

Re: The 'invisible crew' who have 35 seconds to prevent a Eurovision blunder

#10

I know this is not the right place for this but english is not my first language. How is "have" the correct verb here? Shouldn't it be "has"? Like, the crew is the subject, and it has 35 seconds. I'm trying to understand what I'm missing here, because I'm sure BBC did not make a mistake

This is a place where uou can use either. There is IIRC a letter of JRR tolkien where he discusses this very issue. "The crew" can be thouth of as "a set of people" (so you can say The crew has) or "severa people" (so you can say "the crew have").
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